Thinking of starting Cygnar. Advice?

[Wiccus Mcguffrey]

As the title says I am thinking of getting a small Cygnar force to fiddle around with after dealing with Legion field testing (even though I should finish my Trolls and Cryx...) and I was wondering what would be wise for me to get. I want to make an around 35pt list with a few extra options to swap out here and there. I also want to make this a competitive army that I can take to tournaments. I have very little experience with Cygnar as practically none of our local group play them so I really have no idea what they are capable of and have only glanced at the Mk II rules.

Any advice on which units and such you feel are the best would be much appreciated.

Also if possible I would like to make a solid Nemo list as the new sculpt really sold me on the faction but if you feel that other casters are better suited for competitive play I am all ears and can just buy the fun stuff at a later date.

[Dark Fledgling]

Nemo you say?
Well here is the short version.

First, get a squire.

Then, get one, preferably two big heavy jacks. I prefer the Thunderhead and Stormclad for my two, but they are expensive at 35 pts so others like Ol' Rowdy, Hammersmith, and even a nice cheap Ironclad is a good pick.
Second, get a lancer, and by lancer, I mean the Thorn, he's worth the extra points, and you should only downgrade if you really, really have to.

For nemo you also need spell casters. This means Strangewayes, the Junior, and then either Alexia or Aiyana and Holt. Up to you which, but Alexia is best with large troop choices.

If you DO decide to get alexia, Stormguard are good since their are more of them. If you go the Stormclad route for your heavy, then Blades are better for the free focus. I would also recommend the UA for them if you have the points.

Right their you are probably really close to 35 pts if not over. You will note coming from legion and cryx, you have very, very few models on the field. Get used to it, your cygnar and our boys arnt cheap.

For my 35 list in 30 seconds or less, I would probably build something to the likes of this:
Nemo
-Squire
-Stormclad
-Ironclad
-Thorn
Stormblades
Strangewayes
Junior
Aiyana & Holt

I would then spend hours tweaking that trying to get the Black 13th and the SB UA in their, perhaps downgrading the Stormclad to Ol' Rowdy and the Thorn to a Lancer and dropping Aiyana. Or I might just loose the Ironclad all together but then again, two heavies is best with nemo.

Overall, at 35 pts, in order to make nemo really shine you will end up with a really small force that is easily out flanked and one small error can wipe you out. 50 pts really helps nemo alot so he can get enough infantry to cover his back as well as getting a bokur or sentinal to help defend him with shield guard.

But really, for simply expanding a force at all, get a squire, the Black 13th, a Heavy jack of your choosing, a lancer, and then a solid unit again, based on your choosing (but I would suggest melee as having a front line is always needed).

Cygnar is all about denial and control (well, mostly). You get into battle and constantly make the enemy change plans based on what your army does, whether its 10 long gunners on a hill, a thunderhead's e-pulse, or a simple smoke line.

Either way, welcome to the blue : )

-DF

[Ysthrall]

Welcome Wiccus,
I'm working on a legion force, having been playing Cygnar for a while, so I'm looking at this from the other POV, :)

From Legion to Cygnar:
Your 'jacks will get hit a lot more than your warbeasts ever did. They can take it better, but a mechanic of some variety is probably wise.
Manouverability is still pretty good, and ranged damage output is slightly better.
Most of the warcasters play like Lylyth. Stand back a bit and assist. You now have arc nodes though, enjoy them :)

Reccomended units/jacks to acquire: Long Gunners, Ironclad. Simple and brutally effective, useful in competitive lists as well.

If you're after a competitive caster, the opinion on these forums seems to be that... it isn't Nemo. Epic Nemo, possibly. I'd reccomend Stryker to learn the faction and tricks with, and perhaps proxy some casters to experiment with play styles.

[Agamemnon]

It seems that our top tier casters for competative play are going to be eHaley, eCaine and Siege.

All 3 are going to want a squire....basicly the squire is a auto include in all our list Jr is our most used solo. After that you are going to have to decide how you want to kill. Melee beat down = stormblades/stormclad/rowdy, ranged longgunners/atgm/defender/cyclone(maybe). Then you flavor with threat control as needed.

ATGM&UA are a great toolbox of pain in the rear. B-13 can also handle a lot of different situations. Rangers are going to be excellent at making sure you hit those important shots plus they are not that bad on their own. Our tarpit unit is a personal preference some like sword knights some like nyss some like PK.

Great thing about coming in now is that you can buy the faction deck and have almost every card. Play a couple of games all proxi and see what you like.

Welcome to the ranks.

[Professor Lust]

Biggest thing with cygnar is that we really don't have Iwin units.

What we do really really well is play against various metas, assuming we know whats coming. Even the much maligned GMCA has a place if you are facing a ton of incorporeal/stealth units.

That being said if you have a really competitive meta where the best players have more than one faction and play all those factions well, taking cygnar in a tournament can be a bit of a crap shoot.

Agamemnon (http://www.privateerpressforums.com/member.php?u=21542) has the right of it mostly, but I would add enemo and estryker to the list of competitive casters. Ehaley and Ecaine will be our best Hardcore casters where you get one list and a very limited amount of time, though PNemo might have a shot. While Enemo (Depending on how awesome the combination of firefly+new stormsmiths turns out to be), Estryker and Siege are more likely scenario winners.

I suggest this dichotomy of good casters primarily based on the sheer number of models needed to secure their victories. Ehaley, Ecaine and nemo1 all need fewer models for victory than Enemo, Estryker, Siege.


Yet if going simply for fun, simply pick a really cool theme and you can't go wrong.
Blue collar mechanic with a bunch of big toys? Darius. Turning Jacks into Horses? Kraye. Stormlegion with the power of thor? Nemos and eStryker. Just a ton of troops? Stryker. Like playing a high power board control goddess? Ehaley. Like playing ranged denial? Haley1. Facing a ton of infantry? Pcaine eats light infantry for breakfast lunch and dinner? Need to crack heavy armor? Siege.


Cygnar's units are great but they aren't plug and play anymore (if they ever were).
The closest unit we have to a complete module is the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages with/UA. They aren't anit-jack but they can handle anything else well.

[Wiccus Mcguffrey]

Thanks a lot guys. With your suggestions and a little bit of reading I can probably put an army together for relatively cheap, which is what I am looking for at the moment.

[slinkdawg]

If you're main focus is building a playable army for cheap, it may be worth waiting a bit until the Cygnar book comes out with the tier lists. Should be out in January hopefully, and then if there is a specific build that pNemo can give bonuses to (stormsmiths or mechanics maybe) that could give you some guidance what models to acquire.

[Wiccus Mcguffrey]

Yeah I was planning on waiting until late january or early february anyways as I want to field test legion which is my main faction so that they hopefully dont get screwed. But I totally forgot about tiered lists. That could be sweet.

[Killionaire]

For Nemo, I personally enjoy two Ironclads and a Lancer. It doesn't hurt your wallet nor your points that much, and is highly effective. ICs because they're so cheap and powerful, with Nemo's mobility options. You can kill ANYTHING with an Ironclad and Nemo, and that includes 27 Armor Terminus, due to his giving 5 focus and +2 Strength to our already accurate Jacks.

The infantry should compensate for the weaknesses of our jacks. So a unit of Gun Mages and the B13 do it, plus whatever melee infantry you like.